Electric furnace



T. F. BAILY AND F. T. COPE.

ELECTRIC FURNACE.

APPLICATION FILED AUG. 12, 1 91 8.

Patented May 18, 1920.

IIIIIII Flu/M;

HTTO/P/VEK county of Stark and UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THADDEUS F. BAILY AND FRANK '1. COPE, OF ALLIANCE, OHIO, ASSIGNORSTO THE ELECTRIC FURNACE COMPANY, OF ALLIANCE, OHIO, A. CORPORATION OF OHIO.

ELECTRIC FURNACE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 18, 1920.

Application filed August 12, 1918. Serial No. 249,505.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, THADDEUS F. BAILY and FRANK T. Corn, citizens of the United States, both residin at Alliance, in the tate of Ohio, have invented a new and useful Electric Furnace, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to electric furnaces of the resistance type and has for its object to'construct a furnace of this class with a plurality of resistance elements one above the other for the purpose of equally distributing the heat throughout all parts of the furnace.

Another object is to construct a furnace of this type, especially for heating articles of relatively great length and small diameter.

With these objects in view the invention consists in the novel construction and arrangement of parts, hereinafter described,

. and particularly pointed out in the appended claims, it being understood that various changes in the form, proportions, size and minor details of construction may be made within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of the invention.

- In the drawing, Figure 1 represents a vertical sectional. view taken through one of our furnaces constructed in accordance with this invention.

Fig. 2 is a view on a reduced scale of a cross section taken through the furnace shown in Fig. 1, illustrating a top view of the annular resistance.

In the heat treating of articles, such as large caliber artillery gun tubes and the like in which the article has a relatively small diameter and great length the furnace to be used for this heat treatment must be adapted to receive the entire gun tube or other article at one time so that all parts of it will be heated at once. In ordinary electric furnaces this has heretofore been impossible since the now known and employed furnaces are constructed in substantially standard sizes and not designed to receive such articles for heat treatment as those above described.

For this reason we have designed a furnace in which can be placed large caliber cannon and the like, and in which the reslstance elements are arranged so that an even distribution of heat will be effected.

In the drawing a framework 1 composed of steel channel bars or other suitable material and braced by angle bars 2, surrounds the furnace proper, cross channel bars 3 located at the upper extremity of the framework support the upper end of the furnace, the walls 4 of which are constructed of any suitable and well known material used for this purpose. These furnaces will preferably be cylindrical for the majority of their height, the upper portion being curved inwardly as shown and being provided with an opening 5 at its upper extremity. A door or cover 6 is arranged to-fit within and close the opening 5 and through an aperture in the center of the door 6 extends an arm 7 attached at its upper end to any suitable hoisting means such as an overhead crane or the like. the arm 7 are a pair of pivoted jaws 8 which are designed to be locked into gripping position by a collar 9.

Projecting inwardly from the side walls of the furnace is a plurality of brackets 10 which are arranged in horizontal series, one above the other, each of said horizontal series of brackets supporting a resistance trough 11, in which troughs are carried the resistance elements. Resting upon the bottom of the furnace is an inverted frustoconical member 12, which carries a plurality of brackets 13 on which brackets is mounted a resistance trough 14,,similar to the troughs 11 and likewise filled with a resistance element In the practical use of our furnace the hoisting arm 7 will be raised carrying with itthe door or cover 6. An article to be heated, such for instance, as the artillery rifle shown in dot and dash lines in the drawing, will have its upper extremity inserted between the jaws 8 and the clamping ring 9 will be forced down so that the said jaws will grip the end of the gun. The arm 7 is then lowered until the opening 5 is closed by the cover 6 at which time the un will be suspended, as shown in the rawing, within the furnace. The resistance elc-" ments will be so arranged in each furnace Secured upon the lower end of v that any desired distribution of heat can be produced for the particular heating of a certain kind of article for instanceit is sometimes desirable in the heat treating of gun tubes to heat a portion or portions of the tube to a greater temperature than other portions of the same tube. With the use of our furnace this heat variation can be controlled to a certainty by the arrangement of the resistance elements. If it is desirable to heat one portion of the tube to a greater degree than other portions two resistance elements can be placed in close proximity to each other at the point within the furnace that the particular part of the tube requiring the additional heating will occupy. When it is desired to heat all parts of the article being heat treated to the same temperature, the resistance element can be equi-distantly spaced, one from the other, so as to produce a perfectly uniform temperature throughout all parts of the furnace chamber. Since the proper and exact heating of a gun tube is of extreme importance, it is obvious that our furnace accomplishes a very necessary purpose.

While we have shown our furnace as being especially adapted for heat treatment of artillery rifles it is perfectly obvious that it can be as successfully used in the heat treatment of various other articles similar in. general dimensions to artillery rifles, as for instance, structural steel beams such as used bridges, steel piling and the like.

Although the drawings and above specifications dlsclose the best mode in which we have contemplated embodying our inven tion we desire to be not limited to the details of such disclosure, for, in the further practical application of our invention, many changes in form and construction may be made, as circumstances require or experience suggest, without departing from the spirit of the invention, within the scope of the appended claims.

Having fully described our invention,

what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. In a furnace of the character described, a chamber and a plurality of superposed resistance elements Within said chamber, and an opening arranged at the upper extremity of said chamber and designed to admit articles to be heat treated to said chamber and means for supporting said ar-- ticles centrally within said chamber.

2. A furnace comprising an elongated working chamber, a plurality of heating elements located at intervals around the in-- terior of the working chamber and means for passing articles to be heat treated centrally through the workin chamber and for 'supportin said artic es within the working cham er.

3. A furnace comprising an elongated working chamber, annular resistance elements spaced at intervals within said chamber and means for passing articles to be heat treated centrally through said chamber and through said resistance elements.

4. A furnace comprising an elongated, vertical working chamber desi ned for heat treating articles of great lengt said cham-' ber being closed at one extremit and provided at its other extremity with an open-, ing through which the articles to be heat treated are passed, and superposed resistance elements located at intervals around the interior of the working chamber.

5-. A furnace comprising an elongated working chamber, a plurality of superposed resistance elements within said chamber, said chamber provided at one extremity with an opening foradmitting articles to be heat treated to the chamber, a closure for said opening and means for closing said closure as the articles to be heat treated are passed into the chamber, and for supporting said articles within the chamber.

In testimony that We claim the above, we have hereunto subscribed our names.

THADDEUS F. BAILY. FRANK T. COPE. 

